Step 4: Your done

Step 1: What you need:

Items needed:
Glue gun or some sort of strong glue
Magnets (you can buy them at wal-mart or any other craft store for really cheap)
Magazines or some sort of small image
Clear glass pebbles (also can be found in craft sections in mesh bags)

Step 2: Image

Next cut out a small image from your magazine. It should be a circular shape about the same size as your clear glass pebble.

Step 3: Glueing

Glue your small image onto the magnet first THEN put a glob of clear glue on top of the image and smash the clear pebble on top of it

Step 4: Your done

Now attach them to your fridge. They work great and are really strong.

You can get round digital collage images from Etsy.com (search "digital collage" and "circle" or "round". They come in 1" circles, but you can resize the whole document to make the circles the size you need.

I used diamond glaze adhesive but any clear craft glue stronger than Elmer's will work. Diamond glaze is particularly nasty about building up on your fingers and costs a lot. Alene's works. Mod Podge works. These are cheap and readily available in lots of sizes.

The rare earth magnets are very small, about 4mm dia. A little small for gluing your image onto. So I glue the picture on the glass first, seal the back of the image (with glue), then paint black or gold nail polish over it to "finish" it. (If you don't seal it, the nail polish will soak through.)

After that's all dry, I attach the little magnet with super glue and lay it magnet side up to dry completely. Cyanoacrylate glue will give off vapors for a while, which will stain your surface if you put it on a fridge right after attaching the magnet.

I had my sheet of pictures printed out at a copy center on their color laser printer. I don't know if mod podge will cause inkjet to run, but I was making a ton of them and didn't feel like doing them twice.

Something those flimsy peel-and-stick magnets are good for, though: I got a digital collage sheet of "inchies", printed them out, had them laminated at a teacher supply store, cut them apart, and stuck the little magnet on the back. I sent them out as promotion items (stuck it in a little zippy and stapled that to my business card). They might not hold more than a coupon on the fridge, but people do tend to keep fridge magnets and they're perfect for this size.

Thanks for the project, it was so much fun that I think I'm addicted! I think instead of valentines this year, I'm going to give out magnets. It's really inexpensive and this project has allowed me to save some images that would be just viewed as junk otherwise.. like subway maps from vacations and other souvenir stuff. Thanks again!!

Hey thanks!! I had a lot of fun making them, and I've actually had more fun giving them. I mean, it's pretty cool when you give your best friend some inside joke (or something specific to them) as a fridge magnet. I've made a ton more since these pictures and I keep getting requests. :)

Very cool! I was just about to work on this project (I saw it in a craft book I bought recently), myself; as my husband and I are both avid World of Warcraft players I printed out a bunch of icons from the game, to turn into magnets. :)

I had myself a crafting Saturday and tried this out, everyone I've given them too loves them! My computer and hole punch made things easier but I must learn to use a hot glue gun without burning myself. lol

I'm thinking next time I'll try using some of the colorful clay that dries solid, around the edges to make things a little cleaner. Other than that, this was a great idea! Thanks for sharing.

Hey, I go to a super wal-mart for their craft section. Maybe yours isn't a super wal-mart. If you have one though you can easily find these magnets in one of the isles. And almost any craft store (Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, Michaels, AC Moore (depending on where you live) will have a glue gun. Otherwise you could probably use superglue. Give it a try!

I love this craft! I've been doing them for a few years now. I got tired of trying to find pictures in magazines so I started using my computer to gather images. I shrink clip art and my own pictures down to the perfect size. I also got the perfect hole punch at Michaels that is a 1/2inch circle. So it's sooooo much faster to print a page of images and then use the hole puncher - talk about mass producing! I had to start buying magnets on-line because I needed them so fast, I was buying out the craft stores. So much fun and easy for all ages!

I like to search in magazines. You obviously don't need a huge picture. Just something small and interesting. Even if it's just a plain color with a little texture or added colors. What about images from old cards you've gotten, or something from junk mail magazines?

I just happened on this while wondering around, and I really like the idea. Thanks. I have had poor, at best, results from those thin "sticky on one side" magnets. Our craft store only stocks cheap one's with nearly no holding power.

Well, I don't know about your area, but here, rare-earth magnets are rather pricey. And it is hard to get the right magnetic force around here too. Either we settle for the weak one's or try to use the one I have that give me nearly 90 lbs of pull. At least it would fall off I guess LOL

That would be great. I know the one I have it kept in a wood box with 3" sides on it so as not to "get too stuck" to anything. It'll pull nails out of wood and if I got my finger between it and some iron, I would get a nasty bruise.

This is such a cool, and artsy, instructable! The only thing I might do differently would be to get some of those adhesive magnetic strips and then cut them to shape. That way you could use the adhesive side to apply your image to, then glue the glass pebble on top. Thanks!

Yeah, I suppose the adhesive magnet strips would work but it would still look a little botched up. I think next time I would get the Rare Earth Magnets. They are thinner and silver and would look much better. Thanks for the comment!

very cool however, i might recomend some Rare Earth Magnets instead of those huge nasty things.......I just got some off ebay to do a similar thing. My wife and I collect fridge mags. from places we visit. Some places however don't have fridge mags. For example, the casino boat we went on recently. So I stole one of their $1 tokens and got some magnets to glue on the token! Here's a link to the ebay seller.